This fascinating manifestation of GAA democracy whereby one aspirant to autocracy is exalted and enriched over others if he can hit upon what these or those illuminati at the levers of power think they want to hear remains rare in hurling: devotion to, or fanaticism about the game's essence and traditions, and the will to vindicate methods and theories, still prevail; though the canker and ignominy of the brown envelope never cease attempting to infiltrate and subvert. And, occasionally, they do establish a sickly root here or there, while our modern husbandmen go chugging rather, humbugging along lacking capacity and boldness to expunge such weeds.

This year's melange of managerial movements has thrown up some quite intriguing prospects. Then again, of course, pundits and persons of probity, too were similarly intrigued and enthused when, 12 months since, the championship draws for AD 2000 were announced. And where did that get us all? Into the fan club of the lad who noted that ``The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; the pessimist fears this is true'' that's where. Still, no surrender: let us stay optimistic enough to hope that the future is uncertain.

Galway's appointment of Noel Lane is neither surprising nor premature. His predecessors did not have to go trawling and prospecting for players in the way that, say, Limerick or Wexford selectors had to do through so many of recent years. Those Galway preceptors had successful underage teams and a multiplicity of richly promising individuals to work on. And work they did: churning away with all of the diligence but none of the adroitness or intuition of some fair cailín deas crúite na mbó. So that whatever cream came to the top never quite set into a solid, wholesome block of prize-winning butter.

An All-Ireland and right soon is every bit as gut grippingly essential to Noel Lane as it was to Michael Keating or Brian Cody. Remember how Lane, proud possessor of an imperial panoply of hurling skills, matched in Galway by Joe Cooney alone, was, before the All-Ireland finals of 1987 and '88, dropped from a Galway attack ravaged by a population explosion of handballing heathens and supersonic soloists, who wore the cover off the ball and scorched the earth, in search of a flight path back to their native stratosphere, and confounded the tranquillity of every class of hurling humanoid except scorekeepers.

IN each of those years, Lane came on and scored the winning goal! That did not alleviate may, indeed, have exacerbated the hurt of being absent from the winning team photograph.

Lane never did accept the `reasoning' behind his demotion from the starting fifteen, and he was not alone in remembering that doings and omissions on the line had as much, or more, to do with Galway's losing the All-Irelands of '79, '85 and '86 as anything that happened on the pitch. To win on the line that `whole' All-Ireland, which he was denied on the playing fields of a decade and a half earlier, would surely constitute the most satisfying redemption and vindication not to say retribution for Noel Lane. And the lust to achieve it must be a most potent motivation.

Lane and John Connolly may be expected to restore, and copperfasten, the primacy of the camán in Galway's playing methodology. Thereafter, a modicum of wit and alertness in selection and switching may make Galway the main threat to The Cats over the next year or two.

In Cork, matters are altogether murkier. And will not even begin to be clarified until meetings of the executive and full board on November 7. Jimmy Barry Murphy is playing a tighter hand than the Cincinnati Kid, which will not be turned over until that date at the earliest.

The representative of the county champions, Phil Noonan of Newtownshandrum, has been added to the selection committee, bringing its number to six. So that, if JBM stays on, an election will have to be held to appoint five or drop one of the six. The overwhelming wish of officialdom and public is that JBM should stay.

EITHER way, the manager/coach will be appointed from within the selection committee. Which means that, for another year at any rate, the rather singular talents and more singular tactics of Bernie O'Connor will not be applied to the county team.

In the event of JBM's resignation, Bertie Óg Murphy, following his U-21 triumphs, would probably be seen as odds-on favourite for the post or Purgatory with Tom Cashman quoted at short odds, too. Then again, a large and respectable body of scholars maintains that Johnny Crowley's may be the personality and history to instil focus and discipline into the vanguard which disintegrated against Offaly. Whoever emerges will need some expertise in dowsing and divining, too, for at least two new, and good, players must be discovered before Cork become realistic challengers again.

Applicants for the Offaly helm or Hell are indeed backward in coming forward. When mutinies multiply the pretexts for them ring ever more hollow, and the crew which shelters the mutineers find it ever more difficult to find a master mariner to guide them through great waters. John Troy's walkout and Hubert Rigney's tantrum make up the total of what we public know of the difficulties in the managerial career of Pat Fleury. I bet his memoirs will provide a deal more stimulating reading. Babs' memories of Pilkington and his mutiny certainly have.

In this age of claptrap about `burnout' and `sacrifices' the insistence of many Offaly players that they would train when and as they chose and the accompanying, though unspoken, conviction that the superb skills and hurling habits acquired at school and on county minor panels would always see them through was refreshing, and perhaps even right and just. What was sickening was the refusal of Offaly players to concede, and respect, the corollary right, and duty, of mentors to treat them in accordance with their performances and attitudes.

SOME good will have been done if we see a diminution or disappearance of the practice of (usually mediocre) hurlers claiming to have been forced to negotiate commando courses in blizzards, with concrete blocks nailed to their insteps, and then poor little dotes expecting sympathy, and money for their `sacrifices'. Perhaps those Offaly mutineers would instruct the sacrificial victims in the doctrine of free will, and the victims' coaches in the inculcation of hurling artistry and economy.